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By 1849, Samuel B. Ruggles’ ambitious project of a high-toned residential enclave centered around his Gramercy Square was well underway. Like Washington Square and St. John’s Park, fine mansions would soon encircle the landscaped park. Among the earliest of which was the home of Henry Trowbridge at 21 Gramercy Park, erected in 1851.
Trowbridge was the head of the Henry Trowbridge & Co. drygoods firm at 63 Maiden Lane. His 26-foot-wide house was four stories tall above a high English basement level. Its Italianate design included floor-to-ceiling parlor windows that were, most likely, fronted by a cast iron balcony; elliptically arched openings within molded architrave frames; and a bracketed cornice.
Beginning in 1853, the Trowbridges shared the house with Silas Moore Stilwell, his wife, Louisa Caroline Norsworthy, and their two children, Silas Jr. and Harrison. Stilwell had married Louisa in 1842 when he was 42 years old. He had served in the New York State Assembly from 1830 to 1833 and had notably proposed the 1831 Stilwell Act, which abolished imprisonment because of debt.
On February 16, 1860, Trowbridge advertised in the New York Morning Courier:
Gramercy Park Property For Sale--The superior four story brown stone front house, No. 21 Gramercy Park, 20th street, next to the corner of Irving Place; built in the best manner expressly for the owner...Possession can be given immediately. For terms and permission to examine the premises apply to Henry Trowbridge, No. 38 Walker St.
For the next two decades, 21 Gramercy Park would be home to Benjamin J. Curtis, a merchant whose place of business was 15 Park Place. While the Curtis family lived here, John Bigelow was becoming a major figure in American diplomacy.
Born on November 25, 1817, Bigelow was admitted to the bar in 1838. In 1849 he joined William Cullen Bryant as editor of the New York Evening Post, a position he held until 1861. That year President Abraham Lincoln appointed him American Consul in Paris. Upon the death of Minister to France William L. Dayton in 1864, Bigelow took over that role.
John Bigelow in 1850, the year he married Jane Poultney. from the collection of the Library of Congress
The 1907 Old Buildings of New York City would recall, "While at Paris, he published 'Les Etats-Unis D'Amerique.' This work corrected the erroneous views of the French as to the relative commercial importance of the Northern and Southern states, and was very effective in discouraging the supposed desire of the French Government for the disruption of the Union." Bigelow also negotiated with Napoleon III about withdrawing troops from Mexico.
Following the war, Bigelow brought his family back to New York City. He had married Jane Tunis Poultney in 1850 and they had nine children, six of whom would survive to adulthood. He was elected Secretary of State of New York in 1872 and served until 1876. In 1880, the Bigelows moved into 21 Gramercy Park. Their country home was in Highland Falls, New York.
The house was the scene of Annie Bigelow's debutante ball in 1882. She was the couple's third eldest daughter. The New York Morning Express reported on December 13, "The cotillion was danced, led by Mr. Frank Eldridge and Miss Jennie Bigelow. Supper was served shortly after midnight. Mrs. Bigelow will give a tea on Saturday afternoon." (Jennie, born in 1859, was four years older than her debutante sister.)
While her husband continued his diplomatic work and prolific writing, Jane was a major figure in New York society. On January 8, 1885, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported that she "gave the first of her January receptions yesterday afternoon. The Misses Annie and Jennie Bigelow assisted in receiving, and about three-hundred guests called."
Later that year Flora Bigelow married Charles Stuart Dodge. The newlyweds moved into the Gramercy Park house where daughter Lucie was born in 1890 and John (known as Johnnie) was born in 1894.
On February 28, 1886, the newspaper reported, "John Bigelow and Miss Bigelow [presumably Grace, the eldest daughter] have sailed from Panama for New York and will arrive at the end of this week. Mrs. Bigelow gave a dinner of twelve for Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and her daughters yesterday at No. 21 Gramercy Park."
Bigelow's trip to Panama most likely had to do with his staunch support of the concept of the Panama Canal. He was close friends with French engineer Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who could become instrumental in the construction of the canal.
John returned to New York in time for Jennie's marriage to attorney Charles Edward Tracy in St. George's Church on April 28, 1886. Afterward, John and Jane hosted a wedding breakfast in the Gramercy Park house. Among the socially and politically elite guests, according to The New York Times, were the Duke of Sutherland, Whitelaw Reed and his wife, the Pierrepont Morgans, Mr. and Mrs. S. Van Rensselaer Cruger, and Assistant United States District Attorney MacGrane Coxe.
The first hint of Jane's health problems may have come in the fall of 1888. When a reporter from the New-York Tribune visited the house on November 29, she downplayed her condition. She said in part, "I have not been very well since my return from Europe, but I wish you would say that I have not been confined to my room at all, and take drives daily in the Park."
But, in fact, she was suffering from Bright's disease, known today as nephritis. On February 9, 1889, three months after the Tribune's interview, the newspaper reported, "Mrs. John Bigelow died yesterday morning, age sixty, at her home, No. 21 Gramercy Park." Her funeral was not held in the house, as was customary, but in St. George's Church on Stuyvesant Square.
Annie Bigelow, "the handsome daughter of ex-Minister to France, John Bigelow," as described by the Philadelphia Inquirer, was married to Butler Kenner Harding in the Highland Falls house on October 23, 1889. The newlyweds moved in with Harding's parents in Philadelphia. Tragically, Harding contracted influenza around December 28, which developed into pneumonia. He died on January 6, 1890, just over two months following the wedding. Annie moved back to 21 Gramercy Park where her daughter, Charlotte, was born.
On Christmas morning 1892, a servant discovered that a thief had made off with much of the family's silver. The Evening Post reported, "there was no evidence to show that the house had been broken into." Detectives surmised that the burglar had used a skeleton key to gain entrance. The article estimated the value of the silver at "from $800 to $1,500," or about $51,800 on the higher end in 2024.
As it turned out, it was a careless servant who was responsible for George Sheridan's being able to walk into the basement entrance. On the night of December 28, two detectives noticed a young man "lugging a heavy valise, at Delancey Street and the Bowery," according to The New York Times. They stopped him, and discovered that the suitcase was filled with solid silver items. When Sheridan could not explain why he had them, he was taken in. Under intense questioning, he admitted to having stolen the silver from the Bigelow mansion.
He said that at 2 a.m. he was passing the house and noticed the area gate open and the door to the basement unlocked. He entered, packed up what he could carry in a bag and left. In addition to what he was taking in the valise to a pawnbroker, the rest of the Bigelow silver was found in his room at a lodging house.
Interestingly, when Jane died, the title of the Gramercy Park house did not go to John, but to Grace. Therefore, when plans were filed in October 1893 for renovations, she was listed as the owner of record. It appears that the remodeling (which cost around $350,000 in 2024 money) included the removal of the stoop and the lowering of the entrance to the basement level.
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In 1907, the stoop had already been removed, most likely in the 1893 renovations. Old Buildings of New York, (copyright expired)
Jennie moved back to the family house in 1896 following the death of Charles Edward Tracy. Of the three sisters, it was Grace who was the official hostess of 21 Gramercy Park. When Annie's daughter was introduced to society in 1911, for instance, the New York Press reported on February 2, "Grace Bigelow was one of last night's hostesses, entertaining at dinner at her home, No. 21 Gramercy Park, in compliment of her niece, Charlotte K. Harding. The dinner was followed by general dancing."
On November 26 that year, The New York Times reported, "John Bigelow, author and diplomat, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, quietly celebrated his ninety-fourth birthday yesterday at his home, 21 Gramercy Park." The article continued, "There was no celebration. Mr. Bigelow remaining for most of the day in his library, where he dined at noon with Mrs. Tracy, the other members of the family eating the birthday dinner in the dining room."
The New York Times, December 20, 1911 (copyright expired)
Four days later, the newspaper reported, "John Bigelow, venerable man of letters, diplomatist, and lawyer, died yesterday morning at his home...The bed in which he died was the same old-fashioned four poster in which his wife died thirty years ago."
Around 1902, Flora divorced Charles Stewart Dodge and in 1905 married Lionel Guest, the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton Montreal. The couple had homes in Montreal and London. Like many American socialites, Flora had ambitions for her daughter, Lucy, to marry a nobleman. Lucy, however, had other ideas. On April 24, 1913, The New York Times reported, "Among the passengers who arrived on the White Star liner Oceanic last night was Miss Lucy Dodge, daughter of Mrs. Lionel Guest, who, having tired of society life in London has come back to live with her aunt, Miss Bigelow, at 21 Gramercy Park." The article mentioned, "Miss Dodge is a tall and slender blonde, with large blue eyes, and is about 21 years old."
Lucy Dodge had not merely "tired of society life in London." The following year, The Evening World reported she had not fled London "to escape the merries of a social season...but to prevent the breaking by her mother and stepfather of a secret engagement to Mr. [Walter T.] Rosen." Lucy had sneaked away from the Guests' London home. After Scotland Yard found her "living under an assumed name...preparing for a stage career," she escaped to New York and the Bigelow residence. She was still living with her aunts on July 16, 1914 when The Evening World titled an article, "Lucy Dodge To Wed New York Banker Despite Parents."
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
The three sisters lived on in the home they had known since 1880. On March 14, 1921 Annie Bigelow Harding died at the age of 53.
Grace Bigelow, who never married, traveled extensively. On October 15, 1932, The New York Times titled an article, "Miss Grace Bigelow Dies At Sea At 80." It noted, "The residence of Miss Bigelow in Gramercy Park is the house in which her father lived for so many years." Jennie, who would survive until 1956, moved permanently to Highland Falls.
The Gramercy Park house became home to the National Musical Benefit Society, which gave recitals in the "Main Salon," until May 1946 when the New York Sun reported that the house was sold, "under the will of Grace Bigelow."
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A renovation completed in 1956 stripped the brownstone, replacing it with a brick mid-century Modern facade. There were now four apartments per floor. While the architecture of the venerable house is now unremarkable, its history is anything but.
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